DOCUMENTS DEPT,
SAN FRANCISCO
Pi- 3LIC LI3RARY
5/S
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REFERENCE BOOK
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JUN 3 01978 Hi il in in !
JUN 3 1978 I! I Mil niTii
DOC( - TMENT siW&WlJl
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http://archive.org/details/10sanfrancirede196973sanf
The Decade
Past
And The
Decade
To Come
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San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
Chairman
Walter F. Kaplan
Vice Chairman
Francis J. Solvin
Michael J. Driscoll Stanley E. Jensen
Joe Mosle
From the Members of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
"He's changed the City, perhaps as no
man ever has."*
The man is M. Justin Herman, executive director
of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.
This is only a small but representative portion of
what the national press has had to say about him
over the years —
"What Herman is doing is to help change San
Francisco's skyline, clear slums, build housing
for the poor, and promote construction of cultural
centers in carrying forward the City's $1-billion
redevelopment program. Backing Herman's often
abrasive but traditionally liberal zeal is $192-mil-
lion in federal grants, which put San Francisco
among the top 10 cities in volume of money flow-
ing from Washington and head and shoulders
above the country's 900 active redevelopment
agencies."— Business Week, May 10, 1969.
"(One) of the three top urban renewal men in the
U.S."— Time Magazine, November 6, 1964.
"Mr. Herman has won national applause for hi
administrative ingenuity and his excellent result
as San Francisco's redevelopment director.
Democrat hired for the job in 1959 by a Republ
can mayor, he successfully sidestepped patronag
and bureaucratic traditions to overhaul the City'
renewal staff and rejuvenate a moribund program,
— Life Magazine, December 24, 1965.
We, the Members of the San Francisco Redevelop
ment Agency, agree enthusiastically with all of th
above. Ten years ago, when Herman was appointee
the City's renewal program had been cited, in fac
as the second worst in the nation. Now it is
good as any anywhere.
The primary purpose of this report is to show whe
redevelopment means to San Francisco. But be
cause renewal has been so closely associated wit
one man and his continuing influence, we, th
Members of the San Francisco Redevelopmer
Agency, dedicate this compendium of achievemer
and commitment to M. Justin Herman, the man wh
continues to make it happen.
*R. L. Revenaugh, San Francisco Examiner, March
26, 1969.
DOCUMENTS DEPT.
SAN FRANCISCO
PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Decade Past
And The Decade To Come
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
The Decade Past
And The Decade To Come
A generous sampling of a decade of progress in renewal and
development is recorded in this report. That past is relatively
easy to record. In many ways evaluation may be made with
clarity and certainty. Pictorial evidence is within these pages.
Readers already know or can easily ascertain the renewal's
social, cultural and economic additives to San Francisco life.
The inquiring visitor may view, walk through or otherwise use
structures and enjoy open spaces created through renewal.
Those who like statistics in depth can get them readily from
the Redevelopment Agency.
Much of what was planned has emerged:
■ Private housing for low-to-moderate income families and
for middle-to-upper income families as well.
■ Schools.
■ Green, open spaces for children and adults to enjoy in
safety.
■ Job-orientation and training for dropouts.
■ Health, home-making, and assistance with social services.
■ An Agency employment policy oriented to the neighbor-
hoods served.
■ An Agency employment policy that exploits opportunities
for having minorities not only in lower echelon jobs but in
the high, professional assignments as well.
■ Works of art for the public to enjoy.
■ Structures and spaces that respect man's need for beauty.
■ Traffic treatment and garaging to help keep the automobile
our servant and not our master.
■ Boosts to the City's visitor-oriented economy.
■ Capturing our national and ethnic heritages through the
establishment of representative cultural and trade centers.
■ Commercial activities to generate increased employment.
How pleasing it would be for us to say: "We planned it this
way." Most of what may now be observed as the results of
renewal was deliberately and consciously planned.
But, a tough-minded objectivity tells us that we did not plaq
all of this. We planned ahead but we responded en route t
changing needs of the City. We fought for the retention <
our goals, no matter what was the opposition, yet we modi
fied them recognizing that we had not the wisdom to dete
mine in advance that there was only one right way— ours-l
to advance the changes in City life for its people. So ofte
other people had ideas as good or better than our own. \A
encountered selfishness and self-destructiveness, and trie
to find a way— and often did— to live with and get work don
with those who manifested their reaction to renewal in thes
terms.
But we— the Redevelopment Agency people— did notaccorr
plish this alone. In this last decade three mayors supporte
us in almost every endeavor. Twenty-nine members of th
Board of Supervisors inquired, listened, investigated an
voted to use the Agency to get some of the City's importa^
work done. Thirteen citizens came out of private life to serv
as Members of the Agency and guide its policies and oper;
tions. Our work could have been nullified but instead we
advanced by the regular City departments.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, and il
predecessor, the Housing and Home Finance Agency, mad
grants and loans and encouraged practical experimentatio
in a spirit which reflected a belief that in some ways Sa
Francisco's renewal could be a model for others to use an
adapt.
In the decade past we issued from time to time reports o
all the civic groups and neighborhood associations wh 1
worked with us and on whose guidance we were depended
but now the list has become so extensive as to be unwield
The press, almost always supportive, gave us no blank chec
and was not above expressing its voice of counter-suggestic
and criticism.
It was our good fortune to attract imaginative and dedicate
developers willing to risk time, effort and money on many!
difficult task.
These were the planning partners of the Agency staff. W;
there always peace and harmony? Did we always agree? Th
answer to such questions is already known to any alert citize
of San Francisco!
But how about the decade ahead? And who will dare in thei.
troubled times to predict the full range of goals, the modij
vivendi, and the mechanisms we will invent and will be i'
vented for us for taking us along the course of a better c!
life?
We cannot foresee all that must be done and will be dor 1
nor how it will all be done. But a great deal is projected
these pages, and on certain broad approaches we can C
dare ourselves:
■ There will be no shift in the emphasis on the creation
jobs, on the better use of land for social, cultural and ec
nomic purposes, on the use of partnerships with people i
volved for the accomplishment of such goals.
■ There will be no diminution in the insistence on amenity
in architecture, open spaces, works of art for public enjc'
ment, and greenery.
■ Upon adoption of the concept by the United States govei
ment, there will be participation in the program propos
January 16, 1967 by the Board of Supervisors upon sugg<
tion of the Redevelopment Agency that all persons who ha
a reasonable claim to a place in the labor market have acce s
to paid, constructive employment, education or training.
■ The volume of quality housing for families will be increase
■ The provision of housing for market-starved single perso ,
regardless of age or condition of handicap, will be seriou I
undertaken.
■ Housing produced will vary in price and amenities above a
<ery acceptable level, but housing by social categories and
5y income segmentation of its residents must be abandoned,
i A new and simpler system for producing good housing
apidly must emerge, for the present system— good as have
>een its results — is completely inadequate to our needs and
)ur capacities in this country.
» Housing will be private in production, use and ownership.
ikut it will be created within the framework of a conscious
lousing policy and program of the City and County of San
•rancisco.
i Meaningful partnerships with neighborhood groups will
lourish. Ideological indulgence on some mythical right of veto
»ver representative government will subside in the awareness
ff the great benefits of collaborative planning and execution.
Nt last there will be a recognition that a neighborhood has
i de facto veto by its own representations to responsible
lovernment, except where that government weighing the
leeds of all the people, of all neighborhoods, is obliged to
erve them all.
■ Neglected neighborhoods will demand the use of the re-
iewal process in some form. The people of the Mission and
: f Chinatown, for example, will no longer let the benefits of
le renewal process pass them by.
The business community looking to the economy, jobs and
ne tax base will ask itself why the northern waterfront, unlike
waterfronts in other port and harbor cities, is not using re-
ewal to bring about the needed benefits plus those of rec-
eation, open space, housing and traffic circulation.
: Racism will be fought. Segregation will be fought. Destruc-
veness will be fought. Poverty will be fought. Not theoretical
>ut down-to-earth programs and projects that respect and
ncourage the rights and individuality of people will guide
ne course of the Redevelopment Agency.
Operating within a broad policy of City objectives, the
igency will continue to retain direction in renewal areas of
s own planning, architecture, engineering, legal, relocation,
!ousing, business development and fiscal functions. The
apacity to deliver products and services in renewal areas
arallels the capacity to direct and coordinate these elements.
The Agency will continue to be product and service ori-
nted, engaging in studies and planning only for operational
bjectives.
Redevelopment will emerge on a legal foundation not only
s the City's instrument for the removal of blight but also as
ie device for creating better urban life. The concept of a
evelopment agency as distinguished from a redevelopment
gency will take hold. A truth so frequently denied despite
ie evidence to the contrary will gain public acceptance —
ven public insistence: That in substantial measure within
ie community the fruits of private enterprise on the publicly
rganized foundation of renewal is a far better way of life
lan rampant, even if daring and imaginative, individualism.
>nly a small part of the City's needs has been and will be met
y the Agency. It is not an objective in itself. Even though it
'ill be given more assignments by the Board of Supervisors,
does not need more work for its existence or its amour
ropre. The Agency is an instrument of the people of the City
f San Francisco expressing themselves through their Board
f Supervisors and their Mayor, and through the Members he
ppoints, and through the public agencies and departments
nd the civic and neighborhood groups and in composite —
ie San Francisco citizen.
et us hope that in another 10 years another report of prog-
3ss can be produced, and that the composite San Francisco
. itizen will be able to say — how much better are these 10
ears than the preceding 10!
M. Justin Herman
Executive Director
1 . Old produce section, before
renewal.
2. New townhouses, Whaleship Plaza.
3. Francois Stahly Fountain and
apartment towers.
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Golden Gateway
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)n the very edge of the financial district, crying for rede-
■ lopment, was the produce market, a colorful but inefficient
id badly blighted nest of low buildings, which the city
inning commission had designated a slum immediately
ter the war.
Like all slums, it does not pay its way, yielding only about
■quarter of a million dollars in annual taxes for more than
Ry prime acres in the heart of the city.
Moreover, it is particularly difficult to keep clean and well-
pliced. Rats and vermin infest the hotels and rooming
puses where its tiny population of six hundred, mostly old
ten, live in squalor.
ire engines cannot move through the streets during busi-
css hours when the trucks of the produce merchants are
hsy at the obsolete loading platforms.
"he market, like the Halles in Paris, belongs to the nine-
tenth century in mood and location, even though its build-
lbs date from the early twentieth.
[Clearly a wonderful renewal opportunity existed here, close
t the waterfront, within easy walking distance of the finan-
cal district and only a little further from the shopping and
■tertainment districts."— Allan Temko, Harper's Magazine,
Ml 1960.
r'his Golden Gateway project... is an outstanding example
t the town replanning which is California's answer to its
iban crisis."— The London Economist, July 9, 1960.
Jow rising along the 45-acre waterfront area of what was
[ice the congested wholesale produce center is a magnifi-
nt housing and commercial development that's the result
a nationwide architectural and development competition."
\nthony J. Yudis, The Boston Globe, November 14, 1963.
I he plaudits of all good men are due to San Francisco for
ling what was considered impossible, and awarding a big
development contract, for the Golden Gate project, un-
Eimpromisingly on the basis of excellence as established by
e Redevelopment Agency's architectural competition." —
chitectural Forum, November 1960.
, *
*
1 . Jacques Overhoff's bronze
sculpture, Boston Ship Plaza.
2. Townhouses and William Heath
Davis House, from Jackson Street.
1. Sydney G. Walton Square.
2. Henry Moore's "Standing Figure
Knife Edged" and Alcoa Building.
3. Beniamino Bufano's "The
Penguins."
Redevelopment made over the city's
icturesque but dirty produce district
nd produced a city within a city, re-
ecting traditions of San Francisco —
rched openings, color, steps down to
Ireet recalling hilly byways, mix of
gh and low buildings, block-sized
ark— but making its own traditions in
articular quality of its plaza-level
ring . . .
..The Golden Gateway is a shining
:hievement— by the Redevelopment
gency, the developers, Golden Gate-
ay Center, the architects, Wurster.
ernardi & Emmons and DeMars and
eay, Anshen & Allen, associated
'chitects . . .
When the project is complete some
:ars from now, Golden Gateway will
t people live on a plateau above the
affic-ways of the city, let them take
e 'high road' to walk to work over
idges which connect the blocks with
ich other, and will restore some of the
nenities most city dwellers have not
town for a long time." — Elisabeth
sndall Thompson, Architectural Rec-
rd, September 1965.
Charles Perry's "Icosaspirale" and
ontime lunchers.
Old produce market congestion.
Relocated produce market, Islais
eek.
"Here the old produce market had to give way, bi
San Francisco's energetic Redevelopment Agenc
helped to provide a new one at a location whic
will benefit both the merchants and the city.
"At the time of my visit, earlier this summer, I sa
only the construction fence, around the huge e:
cavation that will be the Golden Gateway, and
quaint old arch, which is the only thing left on i
site. Both are symbolic of the exceptional spirit
which San Francisco approaches its renewal.
"It is a spirit more sophisticated than the wore
'civic pride' would denote and as worldly as it
touchingly parochial. Good architecture and got
food really matter in San Francisco . . .
"The archway, left over from the now demolishi
Colombo Market, will be retained as a whimsic
memento of the past. It is surely no great archite
tural relic, but after some study, was found to be tl
only worthy one. Along with it, some cobbleston
salvaged from the torn up streets, and old cast in
columns from the market will also be used in tl
new development . . .
"The Renewal Agency's report gives as much spa
to the project's artistic embellishments— an inti
national competition for the main sculpture w
won by the Parisian Francois Stahly— than to tl
usual budget figures. This, too, could only happ
in San Francisco."— Wolf Von Eckardt, The New F
public, September 21, 1963.
1 and 2. Robert Woodward Fountain,
Maritime Plaza.
3. Overlooking Ironship Plaza
townhouses.
"In San Francisco's Alcoa building, the beautifully
proportioned glass box hangs within a strong steel
cage of vertical and diagonal steel beams...
"With its crisscross beams bracing it against earth-
quakes, (it) is spectacular as the centerpiece for
the S100 million Golden Gateway Center.
"Its pedestrian malls are linked by bridges to other
buildings .. ." — Time Magazine, August 2. 1968.
1 . Colombo Market archway.
2. Alcoa Building.
"Gateway to greatness . . .
"By 1972 there will be a bustle of excitement at San Fran-i
Cisco's Bayfront portal such as has not been seen here
since Gold Rush days.
"In more recent times, grocery trucks jammed these water-
front streets as they loaded up with onions and cabbages
for Bay Area tables.
"But three years hence, these streets will look more like
those shown here.
"The tall structures behind the Ferry Building sit on the 8 1 / 2
acre Embarcadero Center.
"By 1972, you'll be seeing its wedge-shaped hotel in opera
tion, as well as the 45-story Security Pacific Bank build
ing... " — California Living, May 11, 1969.
Embarcadero Center
1. Before redevelopment.
2. Embarcadero Center model.
"So what do you do on a Sunday afternoon in May ot 1972
at the loot of Market Street in Fabulous San Francisco? . . .
"Take a walk.
A walk along the waterfront starts at the Embarcadero
Plaza, a four-acre $1.3 million bit of green, with big sounds,
Dig sights. A noisy haven at the hub of traffic. It's all neu-
ralized by Embarcadero Plaza.
'It is the southern anchor of the new North Waterfront; a
strange and wonderful man-made glen.
'You walk past the little cafes that smell more like American
lotdogs with tangy mustard than French or Russian pastries.
3ut maybe that's all right, too. The North Waterfront is a
ittle bit like Coney Island of old— good for the kids, the
ourists and a Sunday on the edge of the water.
'In tact, a walk through the Plaza is like a happening. At
he north end of the plaza, the busiest happening of all.
America's first great monumental fountain, they said. When
Vrmand Vaillancourt, that wild French Canadian sculptor,
irst unveiled his model, some San Franciscans said he was
nad.
But then who else could visualize a man-made Niagara
alls, or hear roaring waters, or feel the swirling mists. You
valk through myriads ol sparkles, tremble to the cacophony
tiat joins, yet overpowers, the frantic noise of The City." —
ick Revenaugh, California Living, May 11, 1969.
Security Pacific Bank Building.
and 3. Armand Vaillancourt Grand
ountain.
10
1. Diamond Heights, before renewal.
2. Downtown view from Red Rock
Hill apartments.
Diamond Heights
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"A craggy goat pasture becomes an oasis of handsome
varied housing.
"Diamond Heights presented unique opportunities, for it was
a choice area at the crown of the hills west of downtowr
San Francisco. But it was rendered undevelopable privatel)
by scattered land holdings amid a gridiron plat that left man)
ravine lots with no access.
"Replatted to follow contours, Diamond Heights' land was
promoted like a real estate development and the Redevelop
ment Agency got prices high enough (some hilltop lots wen
for as much as $15,000) so the project will need no federa
subsidy.
"Moreover, by pricing prime sites high, the city took ii
enough money to sell sites for middle-income units at art!
ficially low prices— a Robin Hood policy of letting the ricl
help pay for housing the poor..."— House and Home. Feb
ruary 1964.
Nowhere else in the U.S. has a big city come up with such
showcase of handsome residential projects only minutes
iom downtown. San Francisco's breakthrough is an object
■sson for the nation.
These two renewal projects (Western Addition Area 1 and
iamond Heights) set a new standard of quality in urban
ousing design.
(They) are two of the most exciting— and strikingly differ-
nt — urban renewal projects in the country."— House and
'ome, February 1964.
In Diamond Heights, which made history in a court test of
ie California Community Development Act since it involved
proposal to 'redevelop' undeveloped land, several hundred
jmilies have moved into custom-built single-family houses,
eveloper-built single family houses, townhouses and con-
ominium apartment units.
A neighborhood shopping center and office building has
een completed, and over 400 moderate-rent garden units
•re being built."— Architectural Record, September 1965.
Red Rock Hill apartments along
iamond Heights Boulevard.
12
1 and 2. Stefan Alexander Novak
decorative safety wall.
3 and 4. Glenridge.
13
Glenridge is almost too good to be
rue . . .
'The project is, critics say, well de-
signed. It is racially balanced, totally
ntegrated and, indeed, moderately-
>riced in its rentals...
The last of Glenridge's 275 housing
m its are now being rented, and already
here's awaiting list...
rThe beginnings were not so smooth . . .
'There were complaints from neigh-
tors who did not want 'poor people'
lowngrading the Glenridge area and
here were problems with construction
lue to soil conditions and the hilly
kites.
'The project is strung out over 14 acres
ilong the southern slope of Diamond
heights and built on three separate
k'acts of land..." — Scott Blakey, San
Francisco Chronicle, May 19. 1969.
. Diamond Heights Elementary
School.
'.. Glenridge mini-park.
"All the designs (for moderately-priced housing in Diamond
Heights) reflect a strong respect for people as human beings
and for their need for more than bread in their daily lives."
— Elisabeth Kendall Thompson, San Francisco Examiner.
August 12, 1963.
14
1. American Housing Guild homes,
Gold Mine Hill.
2 and 3. Hayman homes, along Gold
Mine Hill Drive.
"The redevelopment agency spent $9.5 million buying the
land and grading the hills, moving 2 million cubic yards ir
the process.
"...On the slopes are scores of new single-family homes
some of them expensive, some modestly priced, but all ex
hibiting the imaginative architecture that has come to be
expected in San Francisco."— The Louisville Courier-Journam
& Times, March 5, 1967.
15
1. St. Nicholas Syrian Antiochian
Orthodox Church.
2. Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran
Church.
3. St. Aidan's Episcopal Church.
4. John F. Shelley Fire Station.
"The Western Addition project, proposed in 1949, was a
model enterprise, the first of its kind to take advantage of
new federal legislation enabling cities to pay a comparatively
small share of redevelopment costs by providing streets,
sewers, and other facilities which would be needed in any
case and often are already in existence."— Allan Temko,
Harper's Magazine, April 1960.
Western Addition A-1
"The once-fine old houses in this area began their decline
when the earthquake and fire caused an influx of refugees
into the undamaged Western Addition.
"Housing shortages in World Wars I and II repeated the
doubling-up process to the point that, in 1948, the San Fran-
cisco Board of Supervisors declared a portion of the area
'blighted,' thus making it eligible for redevelopment under
the state's Community Redevelopment Act of 1945.
"The redevelopment area was broken into two parts, known
as Area I and Area 2."— Elisabeth Kendall Thompson, Archi-
tectural Record, September 1965.
"St. Francis Square: City's first moderate-priced and multi-
racial co-op housing project successfully creates new en-
vironment in series of courts."— Architectural Record, Sep-
tember 1965.
1 and 2. Award-winning St. Francis
Square.
. The way it used to be.
!. New Western Addition Public
.ibrary.
I. Laguna O'Farrell (background)
ind Laguna Heights apartments.
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"(San Francisco's) most sweeping project is the Westernl
Addition just west of the downtown business district, where
a slum, eleven by four blocks, is being leveled and replaced
by apartment houses, office buildings, a hospital, a medical
building, garages, a Japanese Cultural and Trade Center and
a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a 299-unit, successfully
integrated cooperative."— Time, November 6, 1964.
"What especially distinguishes these two projects (Westernj
Addition and Golden Gateway) is the important role assigned
to architecture as the means of providing an environment
which recognizes both human values and urban relationships;
at the same time that it does not ignore essential economic
factors. Each project makes this point in a different way...'i
—Architectural Record, September 1960.
"San Francisco, through urban renewal, has demonstrated!
how low-income, moderate-income and high-income housing
can be provided in the core area of the central city."— Dr.
Robert C. Weaver, former Secretary, U.S. Department of Hous-
ing and Urban Development, The Washington Post, April 5,
1964.
1 . The Sequoias-San Francisco
retirement complex.
2. Carillon apartments.
3. Phoebe A. Hearst Preschool
Learning Center.
19
■
1 1
1. First Unitarian Church addition.
2. St. Mary's Cathedral, model.
20
"From a fountain of fire cen-
tered in a vast reflection pool
to a simulated forest of feathery
bamboo plantings, the pavilion
is an architectural delight.
Shops, garden areas, tearooms
and displays open onto a maze
of squares and walkways pro-
tected from the elements by an
overall roof and from street
noise by a deceptively austere
wall which fronts onto Buchan-
an St. Parking for 800 cars is
accommodated underground.
"Adjacent to the pavilion is the
Miyako Hotel, richly furnished
with low-slung Japanese furni-
ture and managed in traditional
Japanese style with a kimono-
clad doorman and bowing,
smiling bellboys wearing hap-
pi-coats. An overnight stay
here can be a real Oriental ad-
venture, especially if you re-
quest one of the typical ryokan
rooms carpeted with rush mats
and with the bed placed directly j
on the floor...
"San Francisco's Chinatown
still has its charms, but the
Japanese Culture and Trade
Center's reflection ponds, rock
gardens and interweaving of
texture and architectural
planes produce a tranquil
world where the usually hectic
activities of sightseeing and
shopping may be accom-
plished with little effort, plus
the exotic sense of being in an
Oriental land.
"Don't miss it when you visit
San Francisco."— Choral Pep-
per, Los Angeles Times, June
22, 1969.
1 and 2. Yoshiro Taniguchi's Peace
Pagoda.
"Japantown, on Post and Buchanan Sts. in San Francisco,
is the Nisei answer to San Francisco's famous Chinatown.
"This burgeoning 1-square-mile Ginza is part of an urban
renewal project to redevelop an antiquated district . . . Opened
recently, San Francisco's Little Japan consists of a thick
concentration of import shops featuring groceries, hardware,
electronic wizardry, restaurants, jewelry shops, art galleries,
flower-arrangement displays, dress shops, Japanese busi-
ness and financial houses and gifts — all woven among post-
age-stamp gardens, stepping stones and earthenware pools
under a covered pavilion called the Japanese Cultural and
Trade Center.
"In spite of its impressive architecture and exotic landscap-
ing, it remains a tourist sleeper — possibly because it was
created by Japanese-Americans to enjoy for themselves and
not purely as a tourist gimmick. This is the first time in its
long history that San Francisco's 10,000 Japanese popula-
tion has had a sector catering exclusively to its own cultural
refinements."— Choral Pepper. Los Angeles Times. June 22.
1969.
1. Miyako Hotel.
2. Inside the Bridge of Shops.
3. Annual Cherry Blossom Festival.
22
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Western Addition A-2
"This redevelopment is adjacent to the Western
Addition Area I, where there are high-rent units
and the racially integrated moderate-income St.
Francis (Square) Redevelopment.
"The proposed new urban renewal project in the
neighborhood is much larger and more significant
than the first..."
"Here is an example of what can be done to mini-
mize dislocation, provide a stable pattern of bi-
racial living, and achieve a degree of economic
diversification under urban renewal. In this respect
it is similar to the West Side Urban Renewal of
New York City. These two proposed redevelop-
ments represent a prototype of the potential of
urban renewal to make a positive contribution
toward the establishment of democratic housing
patterns. They present a challenge to the program
and to the cities of the Nation."— Dr. Robert C.
Weaver, former Secretary, U.S. Housing and Urban
Development Department, The Urban Complex:
Human Values in Urban Life, Doubleday, 1964.
1 and 2. Rehabilitated Victorians
along Bush Street.
3. Blight, before renewal.
23
4 I ft5 '
1 and 2. Ridley Square, the first
mini-park.
3. The way it has been.
24
1. Western Addition Community
Tree, and Martin Luther King Square.
2 and 3. Martin Luther King Square.
"Martin Luther King Square, the new complex of town house
units in the Western Addition area of San Francisco, is a
fitting tribute to a man whose name has become symbolic
of brotherhood. It is also a stunning display of what is being
accomplished across the Nation when neighborhood organ-
izations, private enterprise and private philanthropy and local
and Federal Governments all set out cooperatively to bring
a better life to the disadvantaged.
"Rentals in this handsome complex will be geared to income
and will range from $33 to $122.50 for a single bedroom
unit to $52 to $187.50 for four bedrooms. Priority tenancy
will be given families displaced by redevelopment; for those
who gain admission to Martin Luther King Square, a new
and higher standard of living will be instantly attained.
"The 110 units of King Square are only the first of nearly a
score of such developments planned by the San Francisco
Redevelopment Agency and its associated sponsors. All rep-
resent realistic solutions to a problem plaguing all American
cities."— San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Punch, August 23,
1969.
X
25
1. Martin Luther King Square.
2. Westside Public Health Center.
v -- ."
26
1 . The Nihonmachi (Japan Town) of
shops and residences to come.
2. Banneker Homes, more low-to-
moderate-priced housing.
27
"By utilizing all of the tools now available
to urban renewal, the local public agency
expects to provide, under redevelopment,
some 4500 dwelling units for families, and
accommodations for 1450 single persons...
"The new community, like St. Francis Re-
development, will be a stable racially in-
tegrated neighborhood... But it will have
an additional feature; it will be composed
of low- as well as moderate-income occu-
pants, and, perhaps, a few higher-income
households and individuals. There will be
an almost equal number of rehabilitated
and newly constructed dwelling units in
the redevelopment."— Dr Robert C Weaver,
former Secretary, U.S. Housing and Urban
Development Department, The Urban Com-
dex: Human Values in Urban Life, Double-
day, 1964
1. First scattered public housing
scheduled for the area.
2. Future Fillmore Community
Development Association housing.
3. Friendship Institutional Baptist
Church development.
{TjjV'^n^
28
Yerba Buena Center
1 . Three-block convention,
business and sports center
to be.
"The status quo in the Yerba Buena
Center area lying between Market and
Harrison and between Second and
Fifth streets, is nothing that stirs one's
interest to preserve. Here among 3800
inhabitants are found the prevalent
diseases of blighted and slum areas-
alcoholism, tuberculosis, venereal dis-
ease. Here also are found the highest
hazards from hotel fires that the city
has to cope with (averaging nearly 50
a year). Here jobs and productive activ-
ity are declining and the burdens of the
social welfare agencies are increasing.
By going ahead with its plans for trans-
formation—to which the Federal Gov-
ernment is committed to contribute
29
around S31 million — the Redevelop-
ment Agency expects to change dra-
matically 'the character and public
image of one of the city's most blighted
areas.'"— San Francisco Chronicle,
January 18. 1966.
"Ice hockey and basketball fans should
find their kicks conveniently close by
1972 or soon thereafter. Yerba Buena
Center's new sports arena will be so
near the Powell Street BART station
you'll be able to reach it through an
underground passage. Drivers will put
their vehicles in the adjacent 2000-car
garages.
"If you're a shopkeeper, restaurateur
or taxi operator — or any of the occupa-
tions that prosper from tourism — look
for a spurt in business from 1972 on
as the town's 7000 new hotel rooms
King in bigger conventions and as
Yerba Buena Center's convention
complex gets into operation."— Gerald
Adams, California Living, May 11, 1969.
'The San Francisco Redevelopment
Agency today took the wraps off its
old and dramatic design for trans-
orming three skid row blocks into one
)f the most dynamic urban centers of
America.
'Besides unveiling a scale model of
what is to become the core of the six-
ilock Yerba Buena Center South of
Market, the agency invited developers
o come forward with proposals for
Duiiding it — the faster the better...
'That job requires the construction in
i few years of a 14,000-seat sports
arena, 350,000 square-feet convention
iall, 800 room hotel, half a dozen office
lowers, 2200 seat theater, airlines ter-
ninal, cultural center, shops, restau-
ants. garages for 4000 cars, pedes-
Irian malls and landscaped plazas.
'All this will go up (and under) the
Ihree huge blocks bounded by Third,
: ourth, Market and Folsom Streets.
'As designed by a team headed by
lamed Japanese architect Kenzo
Tange, the three block development
will be all the way a three-level affair."
— Donald Canter, San Francisco Exam-
iner, June 5, 1969.
1. Sports Arena, model.
2. Hotel (background), overhead
garages and great ramp towers.
3. The South of Market scene today.
twWorf !
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31
"Urban renewal, San Francisco-style, is differ-
ent.
"Just like everything else about possibly
America's most beloved city, urban renewal
is practiced here with a sensitivity and a flair
that make the efforts of most other cities
appear lumbering and pedestrian...
"Everywhere (you) could see evidence of the
careful planning that goes into renewal plan-
ning here. It could be seen in the insistence
on not just good but great architectural de-
sign, in the attention given to aesthetics and
amenities for 'the good life,' and on the con-
sideration given the sociological aspects of
redevelopment...
"Another aspect of urban renewal in San Fran-
cisco that differs from other cities is the extent
to which the public is allowed and encouraged
to participate in the planning of the projects
and the decision-making that follows.
"No renewal project is launched or even pro-
posed here without extensive public discus-
sion, formal and otherwise. There are more
public hearings than most cities have, and
most are well attended."— The Louisville Cou-
rier-Journal & Times, March 5, 1967.
And developments just outside of
the three central blocks of Yerba
Buena Center:
1. United California Bank
rehabilitation, from old warehouse
to operations center.
2. Taylor-Woodrow Property Company
Limited office building and garage.
1. Proposed Del Monte Corporation
international headquarters.
2. Housing for the elderly, on
Clementina Street.
3. But a blighted area today.
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32
1 . The new Hunters Point to be,
overlooking proposed India Basin
Industrial Park.
2 and 3. Bayview-Hunters Point
Community Development Corporation
housing to come.
33
Hunters Point
"The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and resi-
dents of the city's Hunters Point and Butchertown
(since renamed India Basin Industrial Park) areas have
shown that citizen participation in renewal planning
can work...
"After three years of concentrated cooperative effort
on the part of (a) area citizens, (b) the Redevelop-
ment Agency, and (c) a jointly selected consulting
firm, plans for renewal of Hunters Point and Butcher-
town have been given both local and federal govern-
ment approval.
"The plans, which call for coordinated development
of a new residential community in Hunters Point and
a new India Basin Industrial Park that will provide em-
ployment opportunities for Hunters Point and other
nearby residents, will cost some 65.5 million dollars
to execute..."— Journal of Housing, May 1969.
1. Hunters Point housing. 1969.
2. Ridge Point Methodist Church
housing of tomorrow.
3. Bayview-Hunters Point Credit
Union housing to come.
34
"The commander of the great naval shipyard in San Fran-
cisco inspected the temporary wartime housing on Hunters
Point in 1948 and declared that the 2,300 units occupied
by the yard's workers had become 'almost unlivable.'
"Fortunately, he added, they would all be vacated by mid-
1949.
"A generation later, there is finally hope that Hunters Point
may be transformed from San Francisco's dreariest ghetto
to a livable neighborhood, serving not only the 800 families
who inhabit the temporary wartime housing but another 1,200
as well...
"Next to the shipyard are a few blocks of uninspiring build-
ings, including drab permanent housing units, a badly de-
signed school, and the recreation center. On the ridges
closer to the freeway, it is an almost treeless waste, scarred
by rows of wooden barracks-like structures.
"Close at hand, the buildings look still worse. They are two
stories high; battleship gray, pale green, beige, or some
other washed-out pastel in color; and each serves as home
for eight families. The area is always ripe for unrest, and
racial outbreaks have been frequent."— Michael Harris, CITY
Magazine, November 1967.
1. Still more low-to-moderate-
priced housing — Bayview-Hunters
Point Credit Union units.
2 and 3. Planned Double Rock Baptist
Church units.
35
"V
1. and 2. Also for and by the
community— All Hallows Roman
Catholic Church units.
"Plans for the 134-acre project area call for clearance of
about 71 percent of the 263 buildings there for the develop-
ment of a medium density residential community of single-
family homes and multi-unit apartment buildings. A large
portion of new Hunters Point housing will be built by com-
munity-based non-profit groups especially for low- to mod-
erate-income tenants...
"In addition to the new housing, the Hunters Point com-
munity will have a new commercial center and new schools,
churches, and child care centers. New recreation facilities,
now seriously lacking in Hunters Point, will include a neigh-
borhood activities building, two large parks, a large play-
field, tot lots, and pedestrian pathways." —Journal of Housing,
May 1969.
36
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India Basin Industrial Park
(Formerly Butchertown)
"According to the 1965 survey sponsored by the Greats
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Butchertown offer
a potentially excellent site for new industrial developmer
in San Francisco. Its present state, however, is little bette
than an industrial slum. Many of the city's meat-packin
companies are housed in dilapidated, obsolete Butchertow
structures. Other businesses, including auto wrecking oper;
tions, which clutter the landscape and yet offer few job:
are also located in Butchertown..." — Journal of Housint*
May 1969.
1. Butchertown today.
2. Planned India Basin Industrial Park.
3. Possible future plant for James
Allan & Son, artist's rendering.
37
For redevelopment purposes, India Basin Industrial Park
as been divided into two districts. District I, located in the
outhern portion of the project area, where Butchertown
leets Hunters Point, is slated for light industrial use. Much
f the renewal there will be accomplished through rehabili-
ition. District II, located in the northern part of Butcher-
>wn, will undergo major clearance to free large sites for
eavier, high-employment industry. Officials hope that the
umber of jobs in Butchertown, currently about 1400, will
lore than double and perhaps triple through redevelop-
lent . . .
Renewal will give India Basin Industrial Park a new street
ystem to accommodate industrial traffic and to relate the
rea to the surrounding streets. A proposed freeway will run
long the northern boundary of the project area. About 4.5
cres of the project will be used for such retail and business
ervices as restaurants, branch banking, and professional
ffices..."— Journal of Housing, May 1969.
1. Butchertown now.
38
Chinese Cultural And Trade Center
"The Chinese Cultural and Trade Cen-
ter, which will bridge Chinatown and
the Financial District and hopes to
bridge East and West, officially got
under way yesterday...
"The $14 million complex will be 27
stories tall, contain a 572-room hotel
operated by Holiday Inns of America,
and a 460-car garage.
"The huge third floor, however, will
contain the Chinese Cultural and Trade
Center. And it will be linked to Ports-
mouth Square and Chinatown by a 28-
foot-wide pedestrian bridge spanning
Kearny Street.
"The 20,000 square feet of space will
be leased to the non-profit Chinese
Culture Foundation for $1 per year by
the private developers, Justice Inves-
tors, although the developer will con-
tribute the entire $650,000 cost of the
cultural center's construction.
"This unusual financial arrangement
was arranged on behalf of the city by
the Redevelopment Agency, which was
asked by the Board of Supervisors to
find a developer that could deliver on
the many promises of a center city
fathers had been making to the Chi-
nese community for years.
"Yesterday showed just how well the
agency delivered." — Ron Moskowitz,
San Francisco Chronicle, August 21,
1968.
1. Chinese Cultural and Trade Center,
model.
2. Making the site ready for renewal.
39
Oiti# Anrl C^rwirrHi C\i Qan Pi
rancisco
hinese Cultural And Trade
i
City And County Of San Francisco
Joseph L. Alioto, Mayor
Board of Supervisors
John A. Ertola, President
William C. Blake
Roger Boas
Terry A. Francois
Robert E. Gonzales
James Mailliard
Robert H. Mendelsohn
Jack Morrison
Ronald Pelosi
Peter Tamaras
Dorothy von Beroldingen
San Francisco
Redevelopment Agency
Post Office Box No. 646
Redevelopment in San Francisco
a. GOLDEN GATEWAY e. VERBA BUENA CENTER
b. DIAMOND HEIGHTS f. CHINESE CULTURAL & TRADE CENTER
C. WESTERN ADDITION, AREA 1 g. HUNTERS POINT
d. WESTERN ADDITION, AREA 2 h. INDIA BASIN INDUSTRIAL PARK
fesign. Ken Ruttner
Typography: Spartan Typographers
Jthography: California Printing Co.
October 1969
31 Marys Cathedral: Yerba Buena Center Central
3locks. and Embarcadero Center Fountain Model
Photos-Gerald Ratto
Portraits: Model photos of Chinese Cultural &
Trade Center, Hunters Point & India Basin In-
dustrial Park-Ronald Hammers
Photos of Icosaspirale. Whaleship Plaza. Moore
Sculpture-Dickey & Harleen
Photo of Taylor-Wood row Model-Dwain Faubion
All others-Winston Sin
The preparation of this report was financed
in part through Federal advances, (oans.
and grants from the Deoartment of Housing
and Urban Development under the provi-
sions of Title 1 of the Housing Act of 1949,
as amended.
V
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Mayor [oseph L Alioto
Only .i few weeks before his unexpected
death, M. Justin Herman, the executive
director of the San Francisco Redevelopment
Agency, set down his feelings about urban
renewal, its past, its present and its future.
His statement which follows, never before
published and unchanged except tor up-
dating, forms the basis for this public report
of the activities of the San Francisco Redevel-
opment Agency. It is as valid now as it was
when he wrote it.
My friend lustin Herman was a talented
man driven by a deep devotion to San
Francisco. He was a doer of the word He
transformed slums into permanent things
of urban beauty. In few men have the artist
and public servant combined with such
dynamic force as they did in Justin.
His tame is cast in durable urban quahtv
that arose where squalor once held swav
[ustin's greatest tribute is mirrored in his
works.
loscph L Alioto
Mayor of San Francisco
May 1. 1973
Vaillaneourt Fountain,
lustin Herman l'laza
Golden Gateway
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SAN FRANCISCO REDEVELOPMENT
Periodic assessment by the general public of
any city program is desirable. Redevelop-
ment in San Francisco with its main faceted
and complex operations is no exception,
particularly since the individual citizen
usually has exposure to only one or two oi
its operations. Opportunity to obtain a broad
overview thus becomes essential for him.
Likewise the big— highly publicized —
redevelopment issues of the day as the}
come and go deny perspective to the process.
The project slowdowns anil stoppages over
lawsuits and inadequate Federal funding,
the perils of the auto dismantles relocation,
the protest of one neighborhood group
against the carrying out of the approved
redevelopment plan for a nearby project, the
storming of Agency meetings by neighbor-
hood groups over their own disagreements,
etc., obscure redevelopment's progress and
provide the usual distortions which negative-
incidents have over positive accomplish-
ments. The latter includes the steady place-
ment of residents in good housing, the
commencement of construction, the dedi-
cation and uses of new structures, and the
provision of jobs and contracts for minor-
ities Periodic assessment in some balanced
fashion is needed if any real perspective
is to be reached.
Where has redevelopment been? Where is it
going' Where should it be going' Is it a
method for the reconstitution of urban life
that has served its purpose and should be
allowed to phase itself out of existence? Or
does it have even greater meaning and use-
fulness in the changes and development of
"the managed city"?
It is to renewal's past and current performance
and future policies that this report addresses
itself.
Fountain of the Four Sumhi^
by Francois stahlv
Svdncv C. Walton Square
Golden Gateway
Friendship Village
Western Addition A-2
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I. REDEVELOPMENT
IN ITS MAIOR
DELIVERY STAGE
In the redevelopment of a city, planning is
rarely undertaken except with the intention
and result of putting such plans to work.
The plans of eight San Francisco redevelop-
ment areas are all in the construction or in
use stage. An additional project— in China
town — has just been funded
Housing for people of a wide range of in-
comes has long been the goal in renewal
areas— housing for elderly singles and
couples of modest income. Housing for
families of low-to-moderate income Housing
for moderate income families. Housing for
families who can afford market rate housing.
Rehabilitated housing for all incomes.
Critics proclaim that more housing has been
torn down than is being built. The simple
fact remains that in a built-up city the worn-
out housing must first be removed to make-
way for the new. Moreover, with the increase
in renewal accommodations for almost
20,000 more residents than were originally
housed, such criticism cannot be taken
seriously.
lackie Rnhinson
Garden Apartments
Hunters Point
Loren Miller Homes
Western Addition A 2
I'rincc Hall Apartments
Western Addition A-2
The Redevelopment Agency, producing 45
percent of its new housing for people of low-
to-moderate incomes, intends to pursue its
comprehensive housing program which
attends to the needs of other income groups
as well.
This will mean continued resistance to
those who throw legal obstacles in the way
of redevelopment progress, as in the case of
the opponents of Western Addition Area 2
and Yerba Buena Center developments. It
will not take the public much longer to
observe that such "class action" law suits
have mostly slowed down the housing
process and extended the time in which
households of low-to-moderate income have
been confined to substandard housing and
denied good housing opportunities.
Out of the redevelopment process has
evolved the largest volume of new open
space for enjoyment by citizens of San
Francisco that has been created in this
generation. All kinds of open space. For
example, miniparks for children long de-
prived of such spaces to remove the curse
of areas in transition. Sitting and strolling
areas. Plazas for public assemblages and
events. Neighborhood gathering places.
Playgrounds. Open spaces designed into
private developments. Sheltered places for
the elderly. These are some of the new open
spaces. Other existing areas have been en-
hanced. More is on the way. What process
in San Francisco in our time other than
redevelopment can show such additions to
our open space?
Martin Luther King Square
Western Addition A-2
Vista Del Monte
Diamond Heights
Community meeting room,
Thomas Paine Square
Western Addition A-2
Japanese Cultural and Trade Center
Western Addition A-I
12
In the heated battles over so main issues—
not involving redevelopment— faced by the
Unified School District and the City and
C ounty, development of schools in renewal
areas bias been taken for granted Western
Addition A-l alone accounts for four new,
extended or rehabilitated schools A new
elementary school is programmed for
Western Addition A 2. The Diamond
Heights Elementary School has long been in
use and the new McAteer High School lias
iiist been opened in the area I he South
School in the Hunters Point Project is Hear-
ing construction with another new school
programmed anil a third to be rehabilitated
Four child care centers are completed or
under construction at Hunters Point
Another was reccnth completed in Western
Addition A-2.
How would San Franciscans generally— not
to mention neighborhood residents— do
without the maior medical facilities pro-
\ ided tor through the redevelopment
process- The Kaiser Clinic, with its 500,000
doctor-patient visits yearly. The expansions
in the Mt. Zion complex. The Westside
Public Health Center The planned new
California College of Podiatric Medicine —
all in the Western Addition.
The earlier renewal projects have their shop-
ping facilities already in use; the later
projects have them under development.
In some areas the shopping facilities such as
those at Diamond Heights and the Golden
Gateway Center are the key commercial
attractions of their neighborhoods. Others
serve both old and new renewal areas.
Big shopping malls are on their way in
Emharcadero Center and in the Fillmore
Center Even specialty products appropriate
to a neighborhood are reaching a special
clientele
Friendship Village
Western Addition A 2
1?
Some 13 churches, rehabilitated and new,
are to be built or have been built in renewal
areas. One of the most dramatic of these is,
of course, the new St. Mary's Cathedral.
But there are others as well, such as the
Unitarian church rehabilitation and exten-
sion. And the exotic, byzantine St. Nicholas
Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Church in
Diamond Heights.
St. Nicholas Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Church, interior
Diamond Heights
St. Paulus Lutheran Church
to be retained.
Western Addition A-2
St. Mary's Cathedral
Western Addition A-l
First Unitarian Church, extension
Western Addition A-l
St. Mary's Cathedral
Western Addition A-l
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Restorations, rehabilitations and preserva-
tions of good bousing as well as building of
commercial structures continue quietly
with Redevelopment Agency assistance and
with little fanfare. Eighteen per cent of the
renewal housing to be delivered to San
Franciscans will be obtained from improve
ment of existing homes. Many of these are
excellent examples of Victorian architecture
which link us with the past, but have been
saved only with extraordinary efforts.
Award-winning Victorian restorations in Western
Addition A-2
18 It Sutter Street
1866 Huchanjn Street
910 Stciner Street
Embarcadcro Center
Powell Street Station, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
Golden Gateway, above parkins and Clay Street traffic
Transportation, traffic and parking problems
are pragmatically solved. In some instances,
the City beyond project boundaries is bene-
fited by the improvement. Vehicles need to
be provided with readily accessible parking
facilities if central city congestion is to be
avoided. The use of linkages to the Bay Area
Rapid Transit System, as in the Yerba Buena
Center Mezzanine or the new Embarcadero
Center station, illustrate the accommodation
of renewal areas to the BART system and
the accessibility to other areas by people
living or working in these renewal areas.
There is much fanfare in American cities
on the corrective use of streets by prohibition
of motor vehicles. The redevelopment proc-
ess, however, makes malls and plazas above
or off vehicular courses full-fledged new
developments rather than limited correc-
tions. In Yerba Buena Center and the
Embarcadero Center shopping malls, the
problem of conflict between pedestrian and
vehicles will be solved by each being given
its own area.
Widening of Geary Street,
Western Addition A-l
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Vaillancourt Fountain, lustin Herman Plaza
Embarcadero Center
Standing I igure Knife Edged In Henry Moore in
foreground of Maritime Plaza uppei porl I Tv/o
Columns with Wedge In Willi Gutmann against Securit)
'■.ink Building in background
Pacific Bird In
nr Liptun
Golden ( latcway
Works (it .irt abound in redevelopment
areas bv deliberate decision and not by
accident. The range is sufficient to please
(or to displease! > varying tastes From the
now classical Hum Moore in the Golden
Gateway Center to the contemporary Willi
Gutmann in the Embarcadero Center or the
praised/condemned new fountain by
VaillancoLirtat the foot of Market Street
Pro\ ision of works of art is .1 requirement of
.ill major undertakings in redevelopment
projects. The Redevelopment Agcncv todav
is setting the pace for the Citj in regard to
other public buildings.
Much is written about the importance of
urban design and various concepts or guides
which ma\ be used to achieve good urban
design The Redevelopment Agency con-
cerns itself with applied urban design As
distinguished from such lucky or ameliora-
tive illustrations as may be accomplished
by a building or two here and there, it has
the only process of operations on a lai
enough scale to make maior contributions
in this Held There are main tine office
buildings downtown but many or them
neglect the sight lines to the Bay or do not
provide compensatory open spaces tor enjoy-
ment at pedestrian levels as do the buildings
in redevelopment projects.
Horse bv Marino Mjrim
1 Gateway
M jntimc Plarj
Loren Miller Homes
Western Addition A-2
Prince H.ill Apartments undo
in Addition
Taxes are such .1 tender subject to San
Francisco citizens and property owners tli.it
occasional indulgence in fanciful beliefs as
distinguished from facts is understandable.
One view is tli.it redevelopment takes
property off the tax rolls thereby increasing
the taxes in non-redevelopment areas.
Persons who hold this view forget that the
Redevelopment Agency provides payments
or credits in lieu oi taxes and that although
there is a short period after the removal of
buildings when taxes do decline, the net
cash (low to the Cit) IiL.isur\ from redevel-
opment areas is a substantial phis very
quickly. Computed on the most conservative
basis returns are already up by $4,300,000
(67%) per year in the City Treasurer S Ottice
and the figure is on its way to an increase
of more than S22,6O0,OO0 (354%) per year,
despite the heaw social-orientation of the
Redevelopment Agency's program.
Developments such as the Golden Gateway,
Diamond Heights and Verba Buena Center,
with the enormous increases the) alone
provide in tax revenues ineffect support
the subsidized bousing that redevelopment
provides for low-to-moderate income fam-
ilies m other areas ot the City particularly
in the Western Addition and Hunters Point.
Prince H.ill Apartments completed
25
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Chinese pedestrian bridge over Kearny Street to Chinese
Cultural and Trade Center
Chinese bridge, from opposite direction, to Portsmouth
Square and Chinatown
Several years ago there was much shallow
talk to the effect that redevelopment is
concerned only with physical improvements
without regard to social needs. Such talk
has substantially died out because it could
not be supported by the results of the rede-
velopment process, fobs and paychecks have
been consistently regarded in redevelop-
ment planning to be as important as physical
structures. In fact, the kinds of physical
structures programmed and delivered in the
redevelopment process are intended to pro-
vide these employments and earnings. In so
many cases these efforts have been tied to
compensatory jobs programs such as that of
the Hobday Inn of the Chinese Cultural and
Trade Center. Because people cannot live by
housing alone, the Hunters Point residential
development is to be supplemented by the
neighboring India Basin Industrial Park.
Years before there were so-called Philadelphia
or San Francisco minority employment plans
the Redevelopment Agency was setting up
its own system in residential neighborhoods
looking to the employment of 50 per cent of
the construction staff from residents of the
neighborhood. Stretching its resources to the
limit, the Redevelopment Agency has main-
tained training programs such as that of the
unarmed Security Guards. Within the
Agency's own ranks of professional and
administrative employees, approximately
50 per cent are minorities.
Citizen involvement is of special significance
in governmental undertakings, and the first
major example of how this might be success-
fully accomplished appeared in the practical
working partnership of the Bayview-Hunters
Point Joint Housing Committee and the
Agency. All subsequent projects which are
residential in objective have working partner-
ships of one kind or another. Although not
always easy, there is believed to be increasing
effectiveness as community leadership adds
responsibility as well as guidance to its
relationships with the Redevelopment
Agency.
Another view, from Portsmouth Square
Ridgeview I
Hunters Point
2S
E. EVALUATION
The question may well be raised as to how
such benefits to the City and its citizens
could have been or could be derived except
through the redevelopment process.
Would desolate Diamond Heights be a new
residential community?
Would the First Western Addition be serving
as the core of the renewed larger Western
Addition?
How would the San Francisco Produce
Market be established on a sound economic
and healthful basis?
Would the downtown core have been
anchored by the residential complex of the
Golden Gateway Center and its companion
commercial job resource, the Embarcadero
Center, without redevelopment?
Who other than redevelopment led the
way in demanding that Hunters Point be
turned into an attractive residential com-
munity?
To whom did the business community turn
in providing jobs as a companion resource
in India Basin?
Would the City be on its way to solving its
convention center problem in a superior
fashion without the solitary advocacy in the
early days by the Redevelopment Agency
against a city-wide apathy?
Would provision have been made for an
increase of residents in this built-up City
without redevelopment? And would there
be any other instrument for providing hous-
ing for people of low-to-moderate income as
effectively as redevelopment?
The Redevelopment Agency is content to
abide by the intelligent citizen evaluations
of such questions.
Western Park Apartments
Western Addition A-l
Ill Rl DEVI L< IPM1 '.
AND THL URBAN CONDITION
But redevelopment is so much a part of the
urban life that it is caught up in the fears
and frustrations, the aspirations and ambi-
tions, the prejudices and priorities inh< n nt
in urban living. These are not only local
manifestations but appear in most urban
areas of the countr)
lust as there are similarities of problems in
urban areas throughout the country, there
are, because of the dependence on Federal
policies, programs and appropriations, sim-
ilar benefits oi even the evolution of new
problems
For example, the criticism that urban
renewal does not provide enough bousing
tor people ot low -to -moderate income is not
meaningful unless it is recognized that the
renewal program was 1 1 years old before
there were laws and appropriations to pro-
vide the necessary subsidies tor such hous
ing. Even with these, the current delivery
system, erratically dependent upon Congres-
sional and HUD actions each year tor financ-
ing housing for low-to-moderate income
persons is clearly inadequate. Housing, being
a large user of capital, cannot he produced
without regard to the national fiscal policies.
But until housing production is made a more
weighted goal, we will continue to have
trouble with housing deficiencies in our
cities— redevelopment or not.
Planning is a critical process in any urban
development. Notwithstanding such import
ance, there is a strong tendency to postpone
essential actions by the substitution of plan-
ning processes that have no clear commit-
ment to action. Planning thus is relatively
inexpensive and placates those who are con
cemed that something really ought to he-
done In distinction, however, redevelop
ment, which is highly dependent upon plan-
ning, never enters that process w ithout the
expectation of turning that planning into the
realization of its goals. Thus, when the com-
munity begins to realize that planning alone
will not solve the problems of such areas .is
the Northern Waterfront, the Mission Dis-
trict, the Central City and others, it may
decide that the planning inherent in the
redevelopment process is w hat is really
needed.
Golden Gate Child i are Center, Thomas Paine Square
Western Addition
A myopic view ot the uses of redevelopment
is that it should he used tor little else than
pun ision ot housing foi persons ol lo.
moderate income It one were to accept the
idea that the pro\ ision ot housing In eco
nomic land social) categories is good public
policy tor most households, then this (unc-
tion ought to he assigned to the Housing
Authority. It, however, one adheres to a larger
view that housing is onl) one component in
the qualm ot the good urban lite and that
other critical components are job resources
educational and cultural facilities, recreation
opportunities, health care, etc., etc , it would
be .1 short-changing of the citizenry to eon
tine redevelopment to the limited objective
of housing.
There has already been reference to the
importance ot citizen involvement by neigh-
borhoods m governmental processes One
can appreciate the benefits without going
overboard. We cannot long live with neigh-
borhood self-determination that disregards
either the professional or technical contribu-
tions ot specialists in government or the
needs of the total eitv No city can long exist
if its neighborhoods are in effect so inde-
pendent that they thumb their noses at all
other neighborhoods ot the city and their
needs.
Finally, our country is in such a difficult
transitional stage on funding urban renewal
improvements or even funding ongoing
urban sen ice programs that it is difficult to
foresee the exact form in which a more
rational treatment with assured resources
can take place. The present redevelopment
projects live from hand to mouth. A dispute
runs on as to whether they should be funded
by special revenue sharing or categorical
grants, or subject to more or less Federal con-
trol What makes these arguments more
difficult ot resolution is the tact that bvand
large in recent years we have been dealing
with more restricted funding than in the
past federal versus local control must
become an issue secondary to the question
of how much federal funding. At time of
this publication the answer to such questions
is not available.
IV. CITY MANAGEMENT
One feature is clear in urban life: Cities are
beginning to take a stronger grip on the
direction of their development. Cities are
also beginning to have a better understanding
of the relationships and integration of various
programs and their funding. The laissez-faire
period of city life is declining and should
decline. The management of the basic direc-
tions of city life is increasingly recognized
as an essential step in city management.
This does not forego the benefits of individ-
ual enterprise, initiative and ingenuity On
a public foundation, with positive commit-
ments to the encouragement of private
actions, city life can become increasingly
attractive.
In the redevelopment process there is not
only a plan. There is also a program to en-
courage entrepreneurs to try their skills and
risk their capital. Redevelopment does not
wait until someone wants to do something;
it gets out and finds that someone and helps
him accomplish what ought to be done.
Thus, redevelopment is a tool of urban man-
agement and a sophisticated city will use it.
Exhibit Hall Model
Yerha Buena Center
Clementina Towers
Yerha Buena Center
Blighted Butchertown
area will be new India Basin
Industrial Park
l m--'
(Above I
Banneket Homes
Western Addition A-2
(Below l
Martin Luthei King Square
Western Addition A-2
i Above >
Friendship Village
Western Addition A-2
(Below)
Thomas Paine Square
Western Addition A-2
V. THE NEED
FOR COMPREHENSIVE
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
At the national level, then.- is recognition of
the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of 1 1 )
the separate administration <>t related cate-
gorical programs, (2) the vast amount of red
tape currently required in financing urban
improvements, ami (3) attempts to develop
local goals and policies at the Federal level.
Two examples illustrate this national recog
ration. First is the recent reorganization of
the Department of Housing and Urhan
Development to place urhan renewal, model
cities, water and sewer grants, rehabilitation
loans, neighborhood facilities, open space,
and public facility loans under the sin.de
direction of one administrator dealing with
community development. The second
example is the proposed legislation for com-
munity development as identified in the
President's budget submitted to Congress on
lanuarv 29, 1971, which would consolidate
the financing of comprehensive community
development programs to cover the above
elements.
San Francisco needs a pohev which addresses
itself to a comprehensive and balanced pro-
gram for community' development on a city-
wide basis. It is important that the City is
now organizing itself to coordinate the
various elements of a community develop-
ment program.
The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
stands ready and able to play an important
role in that program.
Golden Gateway
(Above)
Marcus Garvey Square
Western Addition A-2
(Below)
Diamond View Apartments
Diamond Heights
HOUSING COMPLETED
IN SAN FRANCISCO
REDEVELOPMENT AREAS
May 1,1973
Subsidized
Units"
Unsubsidized
Units""
Total Dwelling
Units
New Construction
Inspection/Rehabilitation
2,372
318
3,260
458
5,632
776
TOTAL
2,690
3,718
6,408
"Financed under one of the following, Federal housing assistance programs:
Section 202, Section 221(d)(3), Section 236, Section 312, Federal Rent Supplements, or Public Housing
Assistance.
'""Financed without assistance through the Federal Housing Administration or conventional lending insti-
tutions.
NEW UNSUBSIDIZED HOUSING COMPLETED
Development
Renewal
Area
Single-family Homes
Duplexes
Village Square
Cape Diamond Apartments
Red Rock Hill
The Sequoias
Cathedral Hill South
Cathedral Hill East
Cathedral Hill West
Martin Luther Tower
Laguna O'Farrell Apartments
The Carillon
Laguna Heights
Golden Gateway Townhouses
Wm. Heath Davis House
Macondray House
Buckelew House
Richard Henry Dana House
Single-family units
TOTAL
DH
DH
DH
DH
DH
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
GG
GG
GG
GG
GG
WA-2
Total
Units
492
60
154
30
104
300
108
138
169
124
150
103
72
58
440
178
178
400
2
3,260
30
NEW SUBSIDIZED HOUSING COMPLETED
Development
Rene wul
Area
Total
Units
Thomas Paine Square
Loren Miller Homes
Marcus Garvey Square
Prince Hall Apartments
Friendship Village I
Friendship Village II
Martin Luther King Square
Banneker Homes
lackie Robinson Garden Apartments
Ridgeview Terrace
Diamond View Apartments
Vista Del Monte
Glen ridge
Clementina Towers
Western Park Apartments
Midtown Park
[ones Memorial Homes
St. Francis Square
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
HP
HP
DH
DH
DH
YBC
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
WA-1
TOTAL
Royal Adah Arms
Frederick Douglas Haynes Gardens
El Bethel Arms
[ones Memorial Homes
Unity Peace and Freedom Terrace
Salvation Armv Apartments
Freedom West I
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
HP
YBC
WA-2
TOTAL
Diamond Heights Village
Single-family Homes
Alpha Homes
BRB Homes
Yatsu Nami Apartments
Single Family Units
Sakura Apartments
Golden Gateway, Phase II-A
TOTAL
DH
DH
DH
DH
WA-2
WA-2
WA-2
GG
98
107
101
92
68
90
110
108
130
101
58
104
275
2 7 6
183
140
32
299
2,372
NEW SUBSIDIZED HOUSING UNDER CONSTRUCTION
142
104
255
1 55
94
258
192
1.200
NEW UNSUBSIDIZED HOUSING UNDER CONSTRUCTION
396
20
51
21
36
1
58
518
1,101
i \bove)
Hayraan Homo
Diamond Heights
(Below)
lackie Robinson Garden Apartments
Hunters Point
A~r.
\
! I
•V
From the Members (it
the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
A tew tacts illustrate the importance of
reiiew.il m San Francisco:
»S192 million in federal renewal grants have
been made to San Francisco Another $70
million is needed to complete the existing
program.
x San Francisco's redevelopment program
includes construction of 14.000 new
homes and the inspection, and where
nccessarv, the rehabilitation of 2800 more
w At the beginning of 19 7 3. nearly 6,000 new
housing units had been completed
x Last year, housing construction reached
the highest level in the Agencw s historv:
1 ,600 new units were under construction
at the year's end Based on preliminary
information, it appears that halt ot all of
the 19^2 housing starts in the City were in
redevelopment areas
x Local propertv taxes generated in renewal
areas reached S10.6 million in the City in
fiscal 1972-73. Prior to redevelopment, the
figure was S6.3 million, when adjusted to
the current tax rate. And when completed,
the eight redevelopment areas will produce
S28.9 million annually in property tax
revenues.
x S2^6 million in privately-financed con-
struction has been completed in our
renewal areas. Another S 120 million in
private construction is underway. Still
another S800 million is scheduled. And
further, millions more have been spent or
are scheduled for public works, such as
parks and schools.
Like any other city, San Francisco must
respond to changing and extremely varied
needs. In the past, its renewal program has
proven an effective way to match the Cit\ s
resources to these needs. In the future, it
should prove even more effective.
Mrs Elouise Westbrook, chairman or the Bayview
Hunters Point Joint Housing Committc< u redevelopment
meeting in Hunters Point
From right— Chairman Walter F Kaplan Vice chairman
Francis I Solvin, loc \loslc\ Stanlcv E kliM.il
Redevelopmc Members at Hunters Point Open
House From Lett— lames A Silva, )oe Mosley, Walter F
Kaplan
Robert L Rumsey, Executive Director
San Francisco Redevelopment Agcnc)
33
Cover Photo: Gene Wright
Community Meeting Room
Thomas Paine Square, Page 10
Golden Gate Child Care Center Photo, Page 13—
Karl H. Riek
St. Paulus Lutheran Church, Page 14— Bob Hollingsworth
St. Mary's Cathedral Photo, Page 15— Morley Baer
Loren Miller Homes Photos, Page 8— Robert A. Isaacs
Yerba Buena Center Model, Page 4
Western Park Apartments Photo, Page 26—
Jeremiah O. Bragstad
All Other Photos— Joshua Freiwald
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
P. O. Box 646
San Francisco, California 94101
The preparation of this report was financed in part
through Federal advances, loans and grants from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development under
the provisions of Title I of the Housing Act of 1949,
as amended
34
f
1
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